Lights Will Guide You Home
by AvrilBurkhart
Summary: Even while running with Klaus, he always came back to see her. Just a glimpse of her smile was enough for him. It was enough until she saw him. Takes place after 3x01.
1. Lights Will Guide You Home

**Summary: **Even while running with Klaus, he always came back to see her. Just a glimpse of her smile was enough for him. It was enough until she saw him.

**Song:** Fix You - Coldplay

**Note: **(Down at the bottom) Takes place after 3x01. Changes: Stefan didn't call Elena in the end, he called Caroline.

* * *

><p><strong>Lights Will Guide You Home<strong>

For two months, Stefan did nothing but run. Always running with Klaus, from city to city, tearing people apart in their own homes or out on the streets, leaving their bodies a mess and then out of guilt putting them back together even though he knew they would not come back to life. The blood, as Klaus always loved to point out, made Stefan forget all the guilt and pain he was feeling, the more he drank, the less he felt; but when he didn't drink the blood, he felt all the pain that he pushed down with blood. Going back to Mystic Falls was clearly a mistake, killing Andie was an even bigger one that only added more guilt that he didn't need, but he knew he couldn't have let Klaus go to Mystic Falls, he didn't want _him_ anywhere near _her_.

He could still see her face when he wasn't delirious and high off of all the blood, her blonde hair shimmering in the sunlight, and her smile that could easily make you smile back, even if you were having the worst day of your life. Even just thinking of her smile made Stefan smile back, sometimes Klaus would catch him, but he never mention a thing about it, occasionally he would throw a stern look Stefan's way that would snap him out of his daydream, but nothing more would ever be said about it. It didn't help Stefan that while on his trip back to Mystic Falls, to get his brother off of his and Klaus's trail, that he went to check on Caroline too.

It was Elena's birthday back at the house, Damon still no where in sight, most likely figuring out what to do with Andie's body by now, and Stefan was standing outside, a safe distance away from all the teenagers outside so they couldn't spot him, but close enough to where he could still see and hear everyone in the house, especially Caroline.

She seemed to have moved on, at least it looked like that to Stefan. While she looked miserable inside when Elena wasn't with her, moving through the crowd of dancing people and moving them all out of her way to get more to drink, he couldn't help but sense that it was over something else, over…someone else. And then he saw her look at Tyler, with the same look Stefan had seen her give Matt, and even him when he first arrived in Mystic Falls. He had to admit now, that it was hard to see her give that longing look to Tyler, part of him, the ripper part, wanted to somehow lure Tyler outside and rip him to pieces, but the other half, the old Stefan, wanted Caroline to be happy, especially since after he left he managed to make her so miserable, and if Tyler Lockwood was what made her happy, then he should just leave it alone. But it was hard to stand there, hiding behind that stupid tree, watching Caroline march around the party, constantly glaring at Tyler when he wanted it to so badly be him.

After standing there for a good ten minutes, just watching her, he knew Damon would be coming back soon, and he knew Klaus would be looking for him, and he wanted to keep Klaus _far_ away from Mystic Falls. With one last look at her, catching a glimpse of her smiling for Elena as she walked back to her best friend with a drink in her hand, Stefan turned around and left, knowing now in his heart that coming to see Caroline Forbes was a huge mistake.

* * *

><p>There he was, standing in the middle of the bar, still throwing wolfsbane coated darts at the werewolf known as Ray who was chained up against the bar wall, and thanks to Stefan's compulsion, not a single person in that bar noticed the screams coming from the man as each dart hit him and burned his skin.<p>

"What took you so long?" asked Klaus as he threw another dart that landed right in Ray's neck as he let out a loud scream that almost sounded more like a howl of pain.

"Just…taking care of Damon." said Stefan as Klaus cast a suspicious glance his way before dipping another dart in wolfsbane.

"Did you get the message across?" he asked as the dart hit Ray's forearm now, causing another yelp of pain.

"Yes." said Stefan as he sat down at the table next to Klaus.

Klaus picked up a dart but quickly put it down as he caught the scent that was dripping off of Stefan now. It was human, not just one, but many, all slightly intoxicated if he was correct, which he usually always was.

"Go for a drink while you were gone? I really don't see why considering where we are." said Klaus as he dipped the dart in the liquid wolfsbane now while Ray whimpered.

Stefan's eyes went wide for a moment, but he quickly calmed himself, not wanting Klaus to catch his worry. "No. I must have just come off of Damon. He smelled like he'd been drinking a little bit when we had our chat." said Stefan as calmly as he could.

"Sure you didn't stop by to see your little blonde sweetheart?" asked Klaus with a smirk. "It sounded like a wonderful party."

Panic instantly hit Stefan. He should have known that Klaus would somehow have spied on him, for all Stefan knew, he could have had someone else following him to spy for Klaus.

"I just wanted to see if she was okay." said Stefan.

"Oh, she's fine. I'm sure she'll stay that way too as long as you keep focused." said Klaus with a smile on his face as he looked at Stefan and saw anger brewing behind his eyes now.

"Don't lay a hand on her." said Stefan through gritted teeth, the last person he wanted to unleash his anger on was Klaus, he knew how it would end, Klaus would end Caroline.

"I won't lay a finger on that pretty little blonde head of hers as long as you keep your head on straight." said Klaus. "I need you focused Stefan, not worrying about if that little baby vampire of yours is going to go off sleeping with the resident werewolf."

Stefan visibly flinched slightly at the mention of Tyler. If Klaus knew this much about Caroline, who knew just how closely he had someone watching her.

"She is a pretty thing, I'll give you that. As beautiful as Katerina. She's got a mouth on her though, someone might have to put her in her place." said Klaus as the dart he threw now hit Ray in the chest.

"How long have you been watching her?" asked Stefan.

"I've had eyes on her since the day you left and came to me." smiled Klaus. "I knew you had a weakness for her, so I've always had the upper hand. If you disobeyed, I'd have someone take care of that little vampire in a heartbeat. Now you know, and hopefully you won't step out of line again. I'd hate to kill her, as I said, she is beautiful, I'd hate to see it go to waste."

"I'm gonna go outside…get some air." said Stefan as he slowly stood up.

"Sure, just remember. One toe out of line and you can say goodbye to Blondie." said Klaus as he threw another dart that landed in Ray's cheek.

* * *

><p>Stefan stepped outside and took some deep breaths. He hated that Klaus had someone spying on Caroline, it made him want to run back to Mystic Falls and track down his spy and rip their heart out. He didn't want anyone lurking so closely to her, watching her every move, just the thought of it was driving him crazy right now. He felt so much worry that he almost felt sick with it, it almost felt like a panic attack of sorts. Could vampires even get panic attacks? He knew there would only be one way to calm himself down, and that was to just hear her voice, just one time, even if he promised himself as he dialed her number that he wouldn't speak a word, just her voice would be enough.<p>

"Hello?" said Caroline as she answered her phone, from the sounds of things, it sounded like Caroline was outside at the moment, just far enough away from the party for it to be quiet background noise. "…Hello? Is anyone there?"

Stefan tried to hold it together, he desperately tried to not just fall to his knees and break down there, hearing her voice made him long for Mystic Falls again so desperately. He held in what he could, keeping his lips tightly sealed even though they begged to let Caroline know he was there on the other side of the phone.

"Okay, look, whoever this is, this isn't funny." snapped Caroline which made Stefan give a slight smirk even though tears threatened to fall, she was still the same which was always comforting to hear. "Alright, I'm hanging up- wait…" said Caroline as she just listened to the silence for a moment, who could have her number that would stay so quiet and not be just some prank caller? "…Stefan? Is this you?"

Hearing her say his name almost made him break down again. He missed his name coming from her lips, she always had a different tone with Stefan, while everyone else either received the harsh Caroline or overly excited one, Caroline's voice always seemed gentle with Stefan, whenever she talked to him and only him, it was quite and gentle, something Caroline didn't do often.

"Stefan…if this is you, please I hope it's you I'm saying this to, but first of all, I hate you." she snapped which cause Stefan's heart to break. "I hate your guts for just _leaving_ me hear. Klaus or not, you didn't even say goodbye to me, you just left! You don't get to leave without saying goodbye." said Caroline as her voice grew softer again. "Second…I miss you. I miss you like crazy. Every time I've gone out in the woods this summer and seen a bunny hop by, I can't help but think of you." said Caroline as she laughed a little, causing Stefan to laugh too. "I still feel bad for all the bunnies I had to kill before just drinking the blood bags. Third, I hope you're okay…well, as good as you can be with Klaus I suppose." said Caroline as Stefan heard her sniffling now, knowing she was about to cry. "I guess there's not much you can do to stay sane with that crazy vampire, but I know you'll try you're best. And last but not least…I want to find you Stefan. Even if I just get to see you one last time before you run off again. I know I can't fight Klaus, or make him give you back to me, but if I could just find you, to see you one last time before, hopefully, Damon thinks of a way to get you back, it'd mean the world to me just to see you alive and in one piece, maybe it'd stop me from worrying so damn much about you…but I doubt it." said Caroline as she sniffled again and Stefan almost couldn't take it anymore. "If you're still there Stefan, I care about you. A lot. You helped me with so much and…I just wish I could help you too. It would be the least I could do after everything." said Caroline with a sigh. "I guess I'll go now…Bye Stefan."

"…Goodbye Caroline." said finally said and hung up before he could hear Caroline say anything back.

He clutched his phone so tightly, he was sure it almost would have busted into pieces. But instead, he turned the phone off, not wanting it to go off in front of Klaus with what would be Caroline's feverish attempts to call the number back. He heard her voice, and he said goodbye…and now he managed to feel worse than he had before.

* * *

><p>"Stefan!" said Caroline as she heard his voice. "Stefan?" she asked and realized now that as soon as he said that, he had hung up.<p>

Caroline quickly attempted to call the number back, but it had gone straight to voicemail. She must have called several times before giving up and just putting her phone away. He was there, he had heard her, he said goodbye. Part of Caroline was so happy that she could burst, knowing now that Stefan was at least still alive, but the other half felt so terrible she just wanted to crawl into bed with a gallon of ice cream and cry her eyes out while watching _The Notebook_. All feelings for Tyler, everything she had been feeling over the summer for him, just with those two words from Stefan, managed to be put on hold in her mind. Stefan, _her _Stefan was still alive, out there somewhere with Klaus. Feeling her stomach growl though, she knew instantly that she was going to need some blood, especially after tonight after that call.

Caroline fought her way through the crowd again, while half of her was happy from hearing Stefan, she was still mostly crabby, and did not want to deal with people standing in the way of her blood and alcohol tonight. Caroline eventually made it to the off-limits room where Damon kept all the blood and she grabbed one out of the cooler before perching herself on top of it and biting into the bag, slowly drinking it all down.

She was there, lost in her thoughts about Stefan and where he could possibly be, when the door opened.

"This room's off limits!" she instantly said, trying to think of where to hide the blood bag until she got the person out of there.

"Relax Blondie, just me." said Damon as he walked in and picked up Caroline off of the cooler and grabbed some blood himself but poured it into a glass instead before sitting on the cooler himself now with Caroline now perched on the counter as she continued to drink her blood.

"You look like hell." said Caroline as she noticed Damon's frazzled state, it usually was hard to make Damon frazzled, so she was curious as to what made him like this.

"You don't look so peachy yourself." said Damon as he observed Caroline's obvious crabby mood that she was trying to stuff down with blood.

"You tell me your problem, I'll tell you mine." said Caroline.

"I don't like this game, pick a new one." said Damon.

"Damon, please. I need something to keep me distracted, if it's something with Elena or-"

"It's not Elena…for once." said Damon as he sighed.

"Oh…then what?" asked Caroline, now even more curious then before.

"Don't tell anyone Barbie, or I swear I will kill you myself, got it?" snapped Damon as Caroline quickly nodded. "Saint Stefan paid me a visit. Killed Andie. He was there to tell me to get off of his and Klaus's tracks."

"Wait, Stefan was here? In Mystic Falls?" asked Caroline as she felt her heart skip a beat.

"Doing Klaus's dirty work, but yes." said Damon.

"…And you've been tracking him? Where are they?" asked Caroline hopefully.

"…No way, not telling you Blondie. I've told you enough as it is." said Damon, seeing the glimmer of hope in Caroline's eyes.

"But-but Damon! You know where he is! We can go get him and-"

"Enough!" snapped Damon. "I knew I shouldn't have told you anything. Look, where Stefan is right now is with Klaus, and in case you've forgotten, Klaus is powerful enough to snap us all like twigs without breaking a sweat. We go anywhere near them, we'll be done for until we know what the hell we're doing. Mystic Falls has lost enough people as it is, I don't think they need to loose another person…even if it's you Barbie." said Damon as Caroline rolled her eyes and her crabby mood returned. "Why don't you go bug your werewolf?"

"He's not my werewolf." huffed Caroline. "Plus, I'm not in the mood, Stefan called me and I just…I don't wanna deal with it."

"So, that's why you're so delightful, huh?" asked Damon. "What did he do? Silent act?"

"Yeah, all I heard at the end was _'Goodbye Caroline'_" said Caroline, mimicking Stefan's voice as the end.

"I've gotten one of those already. Not much you can say when there's not way to help him yet." sighed Damon as he looked at Caroline who was now messing around with her empty blood bag.

Damon scooted off the cooler and handed another blood bag to Caroline. " You need it more than me tonight." said Damon with a sigh as Caroline gratefully smiled at Damon before biting into the bag and desperately trying to drown out Stefan Salvatore from her mind. It was amazing how two words can undo an entire two months worth of trying to forget about him.

* * *

><p>It had been a week since Stefan had seen Caroline, and heard her speech over the phone, and she was still on his mind, in every thought he had except for when he fed. Klaus seemed happy since every kill Stefan made that week, they were all bloodier than before, more gory, and with the last one, he didn't even bother to put the victim back together again as he usually did, he left them in pieces, he was becoming more of a ripper with every kill.<p>

Today, Klaus and Stefan found themselves in a tiny town, not too far away from Mystic Falls, and it was visibly driving Stefan mad now. He knew soon, Stefan would find a way to push the pretty little blonde out of his mind, so he knew what he had to do.

"Why don't you go for a walk." said Klaus simply as he sipped his drink while they sat in the bar.

"…What?" asked Stefan confused while he looked at Klaus as if he was speaking deliriously.

"Go for a walk. Go visit that pretty blonde of yours perhaps, I don't care really what you do for the next…hour and a half. All I know is, if your not back here by ten tonight, I think I'll pay Mystic Falls a visit myself. I have missed that little town. So much excitement in one place." said Klaus with a smirk. "Go on now, before I change my mind and go with you." he said.

Stefan slowly stood up before glancing at Klaus confused again, but once he was outside the bar doors, he took off towards Mystic Falls. If he could just catch a glimpse of Caroline from her bedroom window out of that hour and a half, he'd be happy.

* * *

><p>There she was, doing what she knew she would eventually do. Caroline was sitting in her living room, watching <em>The Notebook<em> for the third time that week, eating ice cream like it were blood and she had been starved for days, though she found herself being a bit of a binge drinker with the blood since Stefan's call last week, so much that Damon even had to put a vervain coated lock on the cooler to keep Caroline out and give the key to Elena to hide safely from her and only unlock for Damon and when Caroline _really _needed a bag of blood. With her blood on lockdown, Caroline was reduced to eating ice cream and drinking way too much alcohol to keep herself from going after a human or even going after an innocent bunny that hopped by her front door.

"I hate you Nicholas Sparks." murmured Caroline to herself as she shoved another spoonful of ice cream into her mouth. Right at the scene where Noah and Allie were at the beach, having their famous "If you're a bird, I'm a bird" scene, there was a knock on the door. "Who is it?" snapped Caroline as she paused the movie, when no one answered, Caroline threw the blanket off of her and put the ice cream on the coffee table before marching to the door and swinging it open to see no one there. "Stupid pranks. If you know what's good for you, you'll leave now before I snap your head clean off, I'm _so_ not in the mood for this." huffed Caroline as she slammed the door shut harder than she should have and plopped back down on the couch in the living room, pressing play on the remote and covering up under her blanket again as she shoved more ice cream into her mouth.

Once the movie finally ended and Caroline had managed to resist putting it on again, she knew she better stop herself before she eats more ice cream and just got to bed already, even though it was only 9:30. But just as she turned off the television, there was a knock on the door again. Caroline marched over to it and threw the door open without saying a word, and this time she caught a glimpse of who had been at her door earlier as they hid behind a tree across the street. Caroline used her vampire speed to run over there and scare the pranksters off, and she was fully ready to give them a piece of her mind…until she realized just who it was, standing there in front of her with their mouth wide open, mimicking the shock on her face.

"S-Stefan?" asked Caroline as she took a step back. "No, no, this is a dream or something." said Caroline as she pinched herself. "Okay, ow, not a dream." she said quietly to herself.

Stefan wanted to say something, he desperately wanted to say anything to Caroline with her standing there in front of him, but he knew nothing he could say would make up for anything or make her feel better in the slightest. So he did what he had been doing for the past two months, he turned around and fled from her, as fast as he could.

"I don't think so." said Caroline determined now as she chased after Stefan.

After a while, Caroline finally grabbed him and pinned Stefan up against a tree in the forest, they were both panting, trying to catch their breath after their long cat and mouse chase, but despite being exhausted, Caroline spoke first.

"What the hell?" snapped Caroline as she pushed Stefan against the tree, he did nothing but watch her now as she began to boil over. "You call me first, saying nothing but goodbye, then you knock on my door all night, driving me insane thinking there's some stupid kid pranking my house, then I find you and you take me for a nightly workout running though these damn woods, and you still say nothing?" said Caroline as Stefan said nothing, just simply stared at her. "Fine, you win. You obviously want me to hate you, so here, I hate you. I hate your guts Stefan. Better now? You can go on with your happy little murder spree with Klaus knowing that you don't have to worry about me worrying about you, trying to find you. Who tries to find a person they hate, right?"

"Care, I-"

"No." said Caroline, stopping Stefan mid sentence. "You don't get to call me _Care_ anymore. You're not allowed to."

Stefan just stood there now, not knowing quiet exactly what to do or say, it was the opposite of what he planned on doing tonight actually, but he knew he had to face her now.

"Could you stop staring at me? I hate it when you just stare at me like that." snapped Caroline, but Stefan didn't look away. "I said, stop staring." said Caroline harshly now, but this time, a smirk crossed Stefan's face. "Just, stop!" hissed Caroline as she marched towards him but Stefan grabbed her by the shoulders stopping her in place, easily holding her back as she fought against him. "Let. Me. Go." ordered Caroline.

"You got stronger." said Stefan with a smile.

"Yes, now let go of me so I can slap that smile off of your face!" hissed Caroline.

"Care, can I say something now?" asked Stefan.

Caroline grumbled a bit at the use of her nickname she told him not to use anymore, but she finally stopped fighting against him and looked up at him, letting him know to continue now that he felt talkative.

"I'm sorry. For…well, everything. I know it probably means nothing to you now, after I just took off like that, but you know I had to right? I traded my life for Damon's, I saved him for Elena…and I've stayed away for you." said Stefan as that caught Caroline's full attention now and her hard glare softened slightly. "I knew that if I didn't take Klaus's deal that Damon would die, and I knew what he'd do to this town. I knew he'd kill everyone Damon and I cared about, and when I thought about it, the worst was thinking of Klaus laying a hand on you. I couldn't stand it if I let someone hurt you Caroline. When I came back last week and I saw you…and when I called you…I knew it was a mistake. Just hearing you and seeing you smile was enough to send me even further off the edge then I already was because I knew I couldn't see you like this or ever hug you again, or see you smile for me with that smile that just…lights up the room and makes everyone around you smile." said Stefan.

"…I'm here right now." said Caroline softly as she saw the hurt all over Stefan's face.

"And I'll be paying for it for months on end now, just seeing you, knowing I can't be here everyday to keep you safe from what's to come." said Stefan. "I miss you Care, more than anyone else in the world."

"I miss you too Stefan." said Caroline as she wiped a stray tear away now. He sure had a talent for making her cry. "God, why did you have to come see me like this?" asked Caroline with a slight laugh as she realized now that she took off out of the house in her pj's and her hair a mess all up in a pony tail, not to mention the dark circles that were under her eyes from lack of sleep and lack of blood.

"You look just fine to me." said Stefan with a slight smile.

"Liar." laughed Caroline as she walked up to Stefan now and hugged him, tightly squeezing her eyes shut as she felt him hug her back. She wanted to just hold on to him and keep him here with her. She thought that maybe if she just did that, held on and never let go, that Stefan could never run away again, that he'd have to stay with her forever now. But she knew better than to hope for something like that.

Which was why as soon as she felt Stefan slowly let go of her, him just as hesitant as she was, she took her chance and pulled Stefan to her lips and kissed him as if her life depended on it, or as if she would never see him again, and with him being with Klaus, it might be just that. Stefan kissed her back just as passionately, not wanting to ever have to let go of her or leave her. When they finally did pull away from each other, Stefan stole one last glance of her and she did the same as her eyes filled up with tears.

"Close your eyes." said Stefan.

"…No." said Caroline knowing what was going to happen now.

"Please, Caroline just…close your eyes." said Stefan desperately, wishing now more than ever that Caroline could be compelled. "Close your eyes and keep them closed for a few seconds, and by the time you open them again, I'll be gone. Like it was all a dream." said Stefan as his eyes watered up too.

"I don't want it to be a dream." said Caroline as she gripped tightly onto Stefan's shirt now.

Stefan removed Caroline's hands and leaned in and pressed his lips to her forehead. "Close your eyes Care, and when you open them, I'll be gone." he whispered.

Tears finally falling from her face, Caroline obeyed and Stefan kissed her forehead one more time, and lingered just long enough to hear Caroline whisper one last thing to him before he let go of her to leave.

"I love you Stefan, I'll always be here, waiting for you." whispered Caroline.

Stefan used every part of his being to fight the urge to kiss her again and never want to leave. He slowly let go of her hands as Caroline began to cry more, knowing there was nothing left to say or do, Stefan took off.

When Caroline felt his scent fade away from her, she opened her teary eyes to see that Stefan was long gone. She broke down and slumped against a tree, having herself a good cry for the next ten minutes, before picking herself up and wiping herself off and walking home, replaying the moment her and Stefan had in her head the whole time.

* * *

><p>"Right on time." said Klaus with a smirk as Stefan walked back into the bar and sat down beside him, ordering a drink and slamming it down right away before getting another one. "So, how is Mystic Falls?"<p>

"Fine." snapped Stefan.

"You talked to Blondie I see. I can smell her all over you." said Klaus with a smile, knowing from Stefan's mood how things would be now.

"Yeah. I did." said Stefan coldly.

"Oh, come on now Stefan, if things keep going our way, we might be back to that tiny speck of a town before you know it. You might get to see your precious little vampire again before we paint the town red with blood." said Klaus. "I might even let you keep her. It might be nice having a lady around, that is if she learns some respect around me. You could both be my tiny little rippers."

"I don't want that life for her." said Stefan.

"Too bad." said Klaus sternly now. "From what I've been hearing, she has some potential to be just as good a ripper as you are. You are few and hard to come by Stefan, and if she seems like a good ripper to me, I'll turn her into the perfect monster. That way we both win, I get another ripper, you get your girlfriend. Tearing the world apart together, how romantic." said Klaus with a smirk as Stefan downed his drink, containing his anger now. "How about we go get something to eat now?" asked Klaus.

Stefan slammed his glass against the bar before storming out of there while Klaus had a smile on his face. With that little blonde constantly on his mind, Stefan Salvatore might just become the greatest ripper yet in Klaus's eyes.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **Hello there everyone! So, I woke up today and was just in a mood for some serious Steroline, which is why this story appeared. Now, since I already have a LOT of unfinished stories, I really don't plan on making this longer. I was planning on just keeping this a one time thing, BUT if enough of you yell at me and harass me to put up more, I might make this a three or four part story. All probably just as long as this considering I have half of part two done already. So if you wanna see more, yell at me. Demand more by leaving reviews and if you want to continually harass me about this, go to the link to my Tumblr on my profile page and harass me in my askbox there since I linger there about 99.9% of the time! So, anyway, I hope you guys like this, and remember, it's okay to harass me to write more of this, it keeps me going :P

xoxo, Avril


	2. As Numb As I've Become

_Chimney falls and lovers blaze, Thought that I was young, Now I've freezing hands and bloodless veins, As numb as I've become…_

**Song: **I Wish I Was The Moon - Neko Case

* * *

><p><strong>As Numb As I've Become<strong>

It had been exactly one month without him. One month and Caroline had no idea what she could possibly do to see him again. She knew she told him one time to say goodbye and she'd be fine until they figured something out, but after the time in the woods, when they kissed…things changed, she couldn't just last with that one moment for who knows how long, from the looks of it with Damon not coming up with any plans to stop Klaus and only updating everyone on Stefan and Klaus's latest massacre and kidnapping, it could have been years before Caroline would see him again. She knew she had _years_ to wait for him, she would have waited all those years too if she had to, but she wasn't going to sit back and let everything unfold when she could be fighting to get Stefan back sooner that twenty years from now.

Over the past weeks as well, Caroline had managed to drive herself nuts thinking about Stefan, she found that after his visit, her worrying for him was magnified by a thousand, there wasn't a moment in the day that she was able to stop thinking about him, but she did find _one_ way that she only used in emergencies…which were becoming more of a frequent thing. Drinking blood, not bunny blood, not blood from the blood bags that she managed to pop the lock off of the cooler and sneak them out but always replace them so Damon never noticed, but real blood, from an actual human being. She'd never kill anyone, she made sure of that, she didn't want Damon or Elena, or anyone for that matter to find out what she did, and she always compelled them too to forget what happened, she also always made sure she used the same person for a while so that there weren't fifty people walking around Mystic Falls with scarves or anything covering up their neck, that would get a bit suspicious. She never used them like how she knew Damon used her when she was human, she really had no desire to sleep with any of them despite her raging vampire emotions, she found that almost any and every emotion could be stuffed down her throat with fresh blood.

No matter how much she ever took from someone though, it never seemed to be just enough for her, sure, she would feel better, more carefree and her mind for those few blissful hours after words would be free of all worries of Stefan or anything really, but part of her always felt…hollow after drinking blood, almost like she wasn't quiet exactly full, even though she fed practically every other day and drank enough alcohol when she was on edge that by human standards, she would have been considered an alcoholic, but with the human blood she still felt like she needed to drink more to be really full. She would always hear nagging voices in the back of her head that pierced through the need to drain the person dry, it would usually be Stefan, but it varied, sometimes it was Elena, or Bonnie, even Damon sometimes, always making her stop drinking before she was full, always making her stop before their heart stopped beating. No matter how good a mood she was in however after having a good emergency snack, she would make sure to not contact Damon, Elena, Bonnie, or anyone while like that, all happy and carefree, not even Jeremy, because they would all notice the huge change in her attitude and know something was up, that she was doing something wrong.

Sadly, tonight was one of those emergency nights. She had been dealing the whole entire day with Damon letting everyone know through newspapers and news reports that Stefan was getting worse, that there was still no chance of them being able to stop Klaus and bring Stefan back from the dark side, and that there was basically still no slightest chance of anything changing. The only thing positive that came out of that meeting was Caroline drowning out Damon going on and on with his scotch. Everyone knew she was the most miserable yet most persistent one of the group, but they still had no idea that she was miserable because she basically ripped her heart out and has it waiting on a silver platter for Stefan when he returns, not even Elena, who magically seemed to be over Stefan and with Damon ever since her birthday. Caroline didn't blame Elena, Elena knew that Damon loved her and probably somewhere in those three Stefan-less months, she started to love him back, especially when she found out that he was looking for Stefan just as much as she was, and in some twisted way, Stefan brought them together, and she was sure that because of that it was the only reason why Damon and Elena were still trying that hard to find Stefan since otherwise, they were fine without him around. Bonnie could have easily lived the rest of her life without worrying about anymore vampire nonsense, she had already had enough, even though she liked Stefan, she didn't like him as a mass murderer. Alaric seemed pretty neutral to the whole thing, as well as Jeremy, Matt, and Tyler; they were all friends with Stefan in some way, but it wasn't like their lives revolved around him, and since there was no life threatening danger in Mystic Falls for once, they were okay with Stefan not being there. Out of the entire group, Caroline felt like the only one that _cared _about Stefan anymore, and after coming to that sad realization today, she needed blood despite drinking what felt like her weight in scotch.

She managed to track her latest "blood donor" down, she was out in the woods at a party by the lake. Caroline knew Matt and Tyler were there at the same party that night, but no one else she was really close friends with, but that was where her little blood donor decided to wander off to tonight, so she knew she would have to lure her pretty far away from the party to keep her out of Matt and Tyler's sight.

Phoebe Mitchell. That was her name. The one girl in Mystic Falls that had a dream to get out of that small town and make something of herself, desperately wanting to be a star, and Caroline had to admit that the girl had some serious talent. She had long black hair that always smelled like lilies and eyes so blue that they almost looked silver at times. Caroline loved Phoebe's blood though, her blood was truly the sweetest she'd tasted yet, Phoebe's blood always tasted like the sweetest strawberry picked in the summer, she was like summer in a jar.

Caroline circled the party silently a few times, trying to wait for Phoebe to wander off close to the edge of the party and take her from there, but she never strayed from the center of the attention. She finally broke down and texted Phoebe's phone, she had Phoebe compelled to the point of where she didn't mind wandering off when Caroline needed blood, Caroline would never have to beat around the bush either, she would just say right to Phoebe's face that she was hungry and thanks to her compulsion, Phoebe always smiled, said "Anything to help a friend.", and let Caroline drink away while humming a tune that was stuck in her head, sometimes Caroline even had her sing a little while she was getting some blood, she found it calming listening to Phoebe's voice. After making up an excuse to her friends about getting something from her car, Phoebe happily skipped away from them all and out into the woods, right to Caroline with a smile on her face.

"Hungry?" asked Phoebe with that smile still plastered on her face as she took her scarf off and Caroline saw her other bite marks that were slowly healing on Phoebe's neck.

"Starved." said Caroline as she slowly walked towards Phoebe, listening to her steady heartbeat.

"I should be fine, it's been a few days, and I've been taking those vitamins and everything, like you said." said Phoebe. "So, drink away."

"Thanks Phoebe." said Caroline as she walked over to her now and walked up behind Phoebe and bit right into her neck, Phoebe never even flinched or made a sound.

"Can I sing a little? If that's okay?" asked Phoebe, who didn't seem to mind the fact that Caroline's fangs were lodged into her neck.

"I don't mind at all." said Caroline as she pulled her fangs out of Phoebe's neck at went for her exposed shoulder now instead, she would give Phoebe her jacket after words to hide the nasty bite wounds.

She started out humming the song before she quietly began to sang one of Caroline's newest favorite songs, _I Wish I Was The Moon_. She found herself listening to slower songs mostly now, and somehow, Phoebe always knew what song was Caroline's favorite, she often wondered if it was just lucky guesses, of a side effect from Caroline giving Phoebe her blood occasionally to heal up. Eventually, Phoebe's voice had been drowned out by her sweet tasting blood that filled Caroline up, and for some reason her blood tasted sweeter than it ever had before. After a few minutes, Caroline heard those nagging voices start as Phoebe's heart rate slowed and her singing became slower, but her blood was _so_ good, too good in fact, she never wanted to pull away, to let the blood end. Despite her better judgment, she turned the voices off and kept on drinking Phoebe's sweet strawberry blood. She was completely lost in her own world until she realized something…Phoebe stopped singing and her full weight was leaning against Caroline. Caroline quickly pulled away and held Phoebe as she slowly put her jacket around her and put her on the ground.

"Phoebe." said Caroline with panic hitting her now, she couldn't have just killed Phoebe Mitchell…did she? "Phoebe, come on now." said Caroline as she bit into her own wrist and held it to Phoebe's mouth for her to drink, but she didn't respond. "Phoebe!" said Caroline as she tried to force Phoebe to take it, but she never did.

Caroline leaned in to Phoebe's chest and heard what she feared most: nothing. Phoebe's heart had stopped beating, she bled her dry and Phoebe never flinched, never said a word, because that was what she was compelled to do. Caroline wanted to find help, to admit all her wrongs and just find help somewhere, but the half of her that was high off of all of Phoebe's sweet blood was telling her to take Phoebe and dig her a shallow grave, leaving her somewhere in the woods to never be found and just be deemed a missing person who will eventually be presumed dead. Caroline was about to do just that until she heard footsteps against the grass of the forest floor.

"Phoebe?" came the voice of Phoebe's friend, Syrena. "Phoebe? Where are you?"

With one last look at Phoebe as Caroline gently tucked a stand of her hair behind her ear to move it out of her face, Caroline turned and took off, only to hear piercing screams behind her as a horrified Syrena found her dead best friend Phoebe.

* * *

><p>Tyler and Matt fought their way through the crowd of people to see what everyone had been screaming about, Phoebe Mitchell was dead and covered in vampire bites, new and old. But not normal ones at least, it looked like whatever vampire got a hold of her liked Phoebe enough to tear her flesh a little bit too. Though Tyler and Matt had never seen one of Stefan's kills in person, thanks to Damon's stolen police evidence photos, they had seen enough to know that this was either a ripper that got interrupted, or someone beginning to turn into one. But who? They knew every vampire in town, at least they thought. They knew Damon wouldn't do this, he was on blood bags, and they knew Caroline would never do this either, she was on the same diet as Damon. And for a brief moment, they feared that some new vampire had come into town, until they caught glimpse of Phoebe's phone in the grass just a few feet away that no one noticed. Tyler nodded towards Matt to get it, and as he silently did while everyone else called 911, he looked through it to see if Phoebe left them any clues as to who turned her into a late dinner. Tyler walked over to Matt's side and studied the phone with him.<p>

"Wait, wait. Right there, the last message she got." said Tyler.

"It says _'strawberries please?'_. What could that have to do with this? It sounds like a drunk text message." said Matt quietly as they stood away from the crowd.

"Or it's a code. Phoebe's blood _reeks_ of strawberries right now." said Tyler.

"Okay, so some vampire used code to lure Phoebe out and her blood smells like strawberries, that's helpful." said Matt sarcastically as Tyler quietly growled at him.

"Hey…does that number look familiar to you?" asked Tyler as he looked the number over and over again.

"Yeah…that looks like Caroline's number." said Matt and after saying that, his eyes went wide as he handed the phone to Tyler now. "No way, Caroline? Seriously? That's like saying a Chihuahua has gone rabid!"

"She's still the same Caroline mostly Matt, but she's a vampire now. It could happen. I mean, honestly, could you picture Stefan doing what he did to those people before you saw those nasty pictures?" asked Tyler.

"…Probably not." said Matt.

"Exactly." said Tyler.

"So what do we do? Tell Damon or ask Caroline upfront?" asked Matt. "I really don't know what to do here."

"I think before we get ahead of ourselves, we check out Phoebe's place and see if there's any sign that it could obviously be Caroline before we get Damon to handle this. We don't need another bloodthirsty vampire on the loose here, Caroline or not." sighed Tyler. "Come on, we better go now, once Phoebe's parents hear about this it'll be the perfect time to sneak in there and check it out."

* * *

><p>"Her first kill? That's interesting." said Klaus with his cell phone pressed to his ear as he stood outside a busy bar with Stefan inside drinking.<p>

"I didn't even have to wound anyone to get her to go over the edge, she's been on this road for a while, it was only a matter of time." said the female voice over the phone.

"Well how about that Aeryn, they both have driven each other into the arms of bloodlust. It's honestly the best news I've had in centuries." said Klaus. "Keep an eye on the girl and clean up her mess."

"Will do." said Aeryn as Klaus hung up and stuffed his phone into his pocket as Stefan appeared by his side, no matter how many drinks Stefan had, whenever Klaus mentioned Aeryn, who Stefan learned was the one out of Klaus's army that was watching Caroline and Mystic Falls, he always listened closely to those calls.

"Who's mess is Aeryn cleaning up?" asked Stefan sternly.

"The dogs." said Klaus with a smirk.

"It's not a full moon." said Stefan.

"It appears that your little vampire has more potential than I expected and was far easier to break than you. She didn't even need blood flaunted in front of her face, she just…went for it." smiled Klaus.

"…That's a lie. Caroline…she wouldn't do that." said Stefan as his blood ran cold, the thought of Caroline killing someone, of turning into something like him, that was his worst nightmare, he didn't want her to turn into a monster like him. He wanted her to stay pure and be the radiant sunlight she was, not fall into the darkness.

"You better believe it. She has excellent timing too. We'll be passing by there tomorrow. Staying not too far away actually. I'm doing some Hybrid testing." said Klaus with a smile. "Guess where?"

"We had a deal, no one in Mystic Falls gets hurt." said Stefan.

"And they won't. It's only one, the oldest one. What was her name? The little red head from New Orleans…" said Klaus trying to think of her name.

"Tess." said Stefan.

"That's it. I figure she might as well be tested out first, see how she blends in with the real world. What better place to test than Mystic Falls? The melting pot of the supernatural world filled with vampires, werewolves, and witches, oh my!" said Klaus with a smirk.

"And what if your Hybrid gets out of hand and hurts someone I care about?" asked Stefan.

"Like Blondie? It's not an issue. I have three vampires there keeping a watch over things for me there tomorrow night. Keeping your friends and little girlfriend or whatever she may be distracted for the evening, far away from the big bad Hybrid." said Klaus. "Personally, I don't think it's the Hybrid your friends need to worry about, I think it's sweet Caroline they need to be worrying about right now."

"She's not going to be a ripper. I won't let her be one. I won't let her be a monster." said Stefan.

"We'll see who wins." smiled Klaus as he pat Stefan on the back. "Now, how about that drink?"

* * *

><p>Caroline sat in the woods, far away from where she left Phoebe and all the people, including Matt and Tyler, to find her. If it weren't for the blood keeping her calm, she knew she'd be having a panic attack right about now, trying to think of a million different things, but instead she just sat there, almost like a statue, listening to the wind blowing through the trees, using the blood while she could to tune out the last few moments of Phoebe's life with her heart beat slowing and her voice growing more and more distant. In fact, it wasn't until Caroline saw a blur in front of her, just a few feet away, that she snapped out of her thoughts, or more like trying to keep those thoughts away.<p>

"W-Who's there?" asked Caroline shakily as the blur passed by in front of her again now as she stood up. "Damon, if this is you punishing me for what I did…it's not funny! Just yell at me, lock me up, get it over with!" pleaded Caroline.

The blur just passed by her again before doing a quick circle around her and running off into the woods, almost like it wanted her to follow it. Caroline hesitated for a moment before deciding to suck it up and see who it was and what they wanted. Caroline followed where the blur went but stopped when she heard someone crying out.

"HELP!" called out someone clearly panicked.

Caroline ran towards the call for help at normal speed, not wanting to risk showing herself as a vampire if this was a human in trouble. But then, she caught a scent, one that was familiar but always different. The scent of blood. Caroline cautiously walked up to where the voice was coming from, and it was from the voice of someone that she remember from school, Amy Blake. She was on the cheerleading team in school, and there she was in front of Caroline, covered in her own blood, clinging to her neck as her blood leaked down onto her white dress she was wearing.

"Caroline! Please help me." she pleaded.

Caroline ended up listening to her heartbeat instead of her words, her heart was slowing down at a fast pace, the more she panicked and moved, the more blood she lost, and the more blood she lost, the closer to death she was with each time she squirmed, and from the way Amy was moving, it wouldn't be long until she was dead anyway.

"L-Let me see what happened." said Caroline, curious to see as to what could have hurt Amy so badly.

Amy shakily moved her hand and Caroline saw that someone decided to take a huge bite out of her, right where it would hurt. Under all the blood, Caroline saw two fang marks, so she knew a vampire had something to do with this, whoever it was though knew where to bite to make her bleed the most.

"It's be okay, Amy." said Caroline though her eyes were glued on Amy's bleeding neck. "I'll make it okay." she said and moved to bite her wrist but in a split second, giving in to her bloodlust, she bit right into Amy's neck.

"Thank…you." said Amy quietly as Caroline bit into her neck so hard that she heard a distinct snap, but she didn't stop. In fact, Caroline kept on drinking until she was sure she must have drained Amy dry.

Once Caroline pulled away, she realized something that she should have been worried about if her mind wasn't clouded up by blood, she didn't feel guilty for killing Amy Blake. And she was starting to not feel guilty for killing Phoebe Mitchell earlier either, in fact, she felt fantastic. Her mind was telling her she did Amy a favor in fact, after all, her last words were thank you.

"Nice job there little one, not as gory as I thought you were going to be but, hey, you snapped her neck and drained her dry, that's a start." came a voice from behind Caroline as she stood up and turned around now to be face to face with a woman dressed in head to toe black with her long blonde hair perfectly in place even though she had been running all over the woods and her green eyes locked on Caroline with a smirk on her bright red lips.

"Who are you?" asked Caroline confused as she took a step back.

"Aeryn, nice to meet you. I work for Klaus." she said. "I have to say though, he'll be pleased to hear this one, you're slowly on your way to being like your little boyfriend, you know, Klaus's pet…god, what's that kids name again?"

"Stefan?" asked Caroline hopefully.

"Really? I thought it was Steven…oh well, I was close." said Aeryn.

"Is Stefan okay?" asked Caroline as she zoomed up to Aeryn and was just a few feet away with hope clear all over her face.

"Personal space." said Aeryn as she gently pushed Caroline away to arm's length. "He's fine…and he'll be fine as long as you keep doing this one little thing for me." said Aeryn, seeing how much Caroline cared for Stefan, she knew she would do anything, especially if it were for him.

"What is it?" asked Caroline.

"…You have to keep killing. Keep doing what you're doing with all these pathetic little humans. But get more creative you know, rip the occasional heart out, maybe even a few decapitations if your up for it. I'm not asking you to go full blown ripper yet, you're a baby, but, I think if Klaus hears that you're doing _such_ a good job ripping people apart, he might let you see Stefan again." said Aeryn.

If Caroline hadn't been so hyped up on blood, if she were in her right mind, she would have said no. She should have turned her back on this mysterious woman and went to find Damon, confessing everything she had done and begging for his help. But she wasn't in her right mind, all she heard pass through those woman's bright red lips was _"He might let you see Stefan again."_. Sure, she wanted to _save_ him, to get him away from Klaus forever, but being able to be with him sooner than possibly getting herself killed for him seemed a lot more appealing at the moment.

"You wouldn't have to do much either." said Aeryn as she gently rested her hand on Caroline's shoulder. "I'd mark them for you, just like your little snack here, leave them out in the woods, and you'd put them out of their misery. You'd be doing them a favor by killing them Caroline. And truthfully, ripping them apart is much more humane then draining them dry."

"…It is?" asked Caroline.

"Of course it is." laughed Aeryn. "On quick heart torn out, or a head knocked clean off their shoulders, their dead in a second. Draining them, well, imagine someone sticking a bendy straw in a juice box and drinking it until it was all shriveled up, you can imagine that must be awfully slow and painful for a human being drained like that, right?"

"…I…I guess so." said Caroline.

"And if I already hurt them, you don't want them to slowly bleed out now, do you?" asked Aeryn as Caroline shook her head. "Think of it this way sweetie, they're already going to die, why not just end their suffering the most humane way possible. Make believe your putting a dog down to sleep after it's been hit by a car. It's the right thing to do since you can't save them, and you don't want them to suffer."

"No, I don't want people to be…in pain." said Caroline.

"Exactly, and drinking their blood after you put them down is the gift that keeps giving! The blood helps you with a lot of things, doesn't it? Like making you stronger, faster…" said Aeryn.

"…Making me not think about missing Stefan." added Caroline.

"It does that too. Helps you flip that pesky little switch. You might as well enjoy it now, right? I hear once you hit 500, it's harder to flip it off. You've got a window to enjoy decades without having to feel those little annoying human emotions." smiled Aeryn. "So what do you say Blondie? I'll even take care of that werewolf and human hot on your trail. See? I'll even be your clean up crew. I'll have to teach you how to clean up after yourself though before Klaus will let you see your boyfriend. He prefers it when his pets can clean up after themselves."

"…You won't hurt Tyler and Matt…will you?" asked Caroline, she may have been not thinking clearly with the blood, but she still cared enough to not let her friends get hurt.

"Cross my heart and hope to…be staked." said Aeryn with a cunning smile. "So? Is that a deal Blondie? I mark the prey, you give them the gift of death, I clean up until you learn how and on top of it all, if you do good, you get your boyfriend?"

"…Yeah. Deal." said Caroline as she nodded.

If only Caroline had known as Aeryn sauntered off to go stop Matt and Tyler that she had just made a deal with the devil.

* * *

><p>Stefan must have tried to call Caroline seven different times already ever since he heard what Klaus had planned, but she never answered, and now it was just going straight to voicemail letting Stefan know that her phone was off.<p>

"You can call her all you want Stefan, but something tells me that she's a little busy at the moment." smiled Klaus as he sat down next to Stefan at the bar the house they were currently at where Klaus kept all his Hybrids.

"You mean _someone_." said Stefan as he recalled Klaus being on the phone moments ago and being all too pleased with what he heard. "What are you doing to her? You said nothing would happen to her."

"And I'm a man of my word, honestly Stefan, your lack of faith in me is quite hurtful." said Klaus faking a hurt look on his face. "I'm protecting her in fact. Offering her protection from your brother who has suddenly decided to become the justice of Mystic Falls. Why, if he hears what your pretty little blonde has done then there's no telling what he'd do to her, he might put her down, and you wouldn't want that, would you?" asked Klaus.

"She wouldn't need any of your protection if you weren't the cause of the problem." said Stefan through gritted teeth.

"I actually had nothing to do with her first kill. That was all by herself. She walked herself off the plank Stefan, no one pushed her. And that brother of yours certainly won't be jumping in the ocean to pull her back aboard, so why not give her some gills and let her live in the ocean?" asked Klaus. "Unless you want her to drown." said Klaus as he stared at Stefan and won their little staring contest. "Besides, I've changed my mind. Due to recent events and your…questionable loyalty to me, I'll be going to Mystic Falls. Alone. And you'll be here while I let little Tess go for a test run. I plan on getting acquainted with my newest little ripper in the making anyway."

"You can't do that!" said Stefan as he stood up and two sets of arms wrapped around him instantly, holding him back.

"Actually, I can Stefan. See, I'm the one in charge here, and I'm also in charge of all these wonderful little smart, strong, fast, and _deathly_ hybrids. They could always keep you here in the worst way possible you know, one little bite and…well, you'll be a vegetable until I come back." said Klaus with a smirk while one of the Hybrids close to Stefan's neck growled as they held Stefan back. "I better be off then, I don't want to miss the show. Maybe once it's all said and done I'll bring sweet Caroline here to see you, if you behave with the kids that is." smiled Klaus as he grabbed the keys off the table and head for the front door. "I'll be seeing you later Stefan, I've got a Hybrid to test.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **Okay, so, here is your second part! (See what harassing me does, it makes me move). But yeah, I know there wasn't any Caroline/Stefan interaction, but I kinda had to nudge Caroline off the edge (or shove her, either way you look at it, I still pushed her) so that it would cause all these events that will lead to Stefan (hopefully) showing up by the end of the third part. I have no idea, I rewrote this part so many times and I've already rewritten the beginning of the third part two times already, so I trying to make it so that Stefan can come in because, obviously, this is a Steroline story. But, yeah, anyway, that's enough of my babbling. New TVD tomorrow night and Secret Circle (no idea if any of you watch it, but I think it's cool so far, my favorite is Faye. What can I say, I like people who have the potential to be crazy). But for tonight, I will be sitting and enjoying Modern Family, so I hope you liked this chapter and I'm gonna need some nagging to get me to finish the third part.

xoxo, Avril


	3. The Saints Without a Cause

_You're not a hero, you're a liar, You're not a savior, you're a vampire, Sucking the life out of all the friends you've ever known. You're just a train wreck, not a winner, Up on your soap box, preaching down to the sinners, The saints without a cause, we're not listening, we're not listening… _

**Song: **Heroes - All Time Low

* * *

><p><strong>The Saints Without a Cause<strong>

Stefan was chained up in the basement of the house where Klaus housed his small hybrid army, and they were put in charge to keep Stefan locked up. It wasn't like he was planning on changing them anytime soon, considering the few times Stefan had seen Klaus with them, training them to learn about their new vampire half selves, and they were truly vicious and relentless. Stefan at times with Klaus could still feel some human left in him, buried under all the blood, but these hybrids, not only did they seem soulless, but once they started hunting something, they didn't stop until they had it locked in their jaws and dying right there in front of them. He wouldn't even try escaping until he was sure he had a fool proof plan, he just hoped that he thought of something soon and could save Caroline from Klaus.

"Well, feeling hungry yet?" asked one of the hybrids as they walked down the stairs into the basement with a smirk on her face. "Klaus left you a little snack."

"I'll pass." said Stefan coldly as the hybrid ran up to him faster than he could blink and clutched onto his throat, suffocating him without breaking a sweat.

"I'm sorry, what was that? I couldn't hear you over the gagging." said the hybrid, holding her ear up closer to Stefan to hear as she laughed.

Once she let go, Stefan gasped for air as she continued to laugh. "Fine. Yes, Chelsea. I'm hungry." said Stefan, knowing the only way he was going to survive this was if he did what he was told considering he no longer had Klaus on his side to protect him from the wild hybrids.

"Be right back." she smiled and skipped out of the room and up the stairs only to return moments later dragging a very scared teenage girl down the stairs. Only there was something very familiar about this girl.

She had golden blonde curly hair and bright sky blue eyes, she looked a lot like Caroline now that Stefan thought about it. Knowing Klaus, that was exactly why he left this girl here for Stefan, as torture, to taunt him with images of Caroline.

"I'm not going to kill her." said Stefan as Chelsea unchained him from the wall.

"Aw, too bad." said Chelsea as she pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and aimed it at Stefan. "I guess I'll just have to send Klaus a video of you just standing there then instead of obeying his orders and killing her. When he sees this, no telling what he'll do to your girlfriend he's told us all about, and no telling what he'll do to you." said Chelsea with a smirk. "Maybe he'll make you watch as he slowly kills her, that'd be something, wouldn't it?"

As soon as Chelsea mentioned Klaus hurting Caroline, Stefan pushed all thoughts of Caroline out of his mind and despite the resemblance, Stefan tore the girl in front of him into pieces as she screamed and cried all before she finally stopped breathing while Chelsea filmed the entire thing on her phone, and once Stefan was done, she happily sent the video to Klaus before skipping out of the room again, leaving Stefan to sit alone in the blood splattered room as images of Caroline refused to leave his thoughts.

* * *

><p>Three hours with Aeryn and Caroline had managed to not only kill two more people, but she had also managed to rip up the last one a little more with Aeryn's guidance while Aeryn had compelled Matt and easily knocked Tyler out before dragging him back to his house and having one of her friends come down to Mystic Falls and keep Tyler locked in, but never hurting him and constantly keeping his mother compelled. In three hours, Caroline had never learned so much in so little time, even if it was all the wrong things that felt so right with all the blood in her body.<p>

"Alright, I'm going to go scout out the rest of the town, find a few _special_ people for you to kill for Klaus tomorrow with his arrival on the way, and you get on out of here and stay home until I tell you, got it?" asked Aeryn.

"Got it." nodded Caroline as Aeryn took off in the blink of an eye leaving Caroline alone in the dark woods, covered in blood from all her victims of the night.

She could have easily took off at vampire speed, tearing through the forest and getting safely home, but she felt like walking, just relaxing for a moment and taking a nice walk. And honestly, her muscles actually hurt from all the hunting, she was used to doing a few things here and there and occasionally fighting, but up until tonight, Caroline had never really _hunted_ a human down. When they were fighting for their lives, they were pretty strong too, not to mention all the muscle power it took to rip them apart which she didn't notice in the heat of the moment, but now, she felt it. It was nice to take a break for the first time tonight and just take a breather, even though doing so usually led to thoughts of a certain brooding vampire that had recently gone dark side himself not too long ago. Part of Caroline was rejoicing at what she was doing, by doing all of this, she might see Stefan, and seeing him for being a monster was better than never seeing him again. But the other half, the part that still had a conscience that was mostly drowned out by blood was telling her how badly she had just snapped, constantly reminding herself that Stefan wouldn't want to see her like this, not after the reasons he left Mystic Falls _for. _

The tiny argument bubbling up inside of Caroline's head could have gone on for hours on end, completely distracting her from her surroundings, if only she hadn't felt a distinct sharp pain in her lower back and turned to see Alaric Saltzman slowly walking out from behind a tree with a vervain gun in hand with Elena and Damon by his side.

"Sorry Blondie, but you had to get put down for the night." said Damon just as everything started going black for Caroline as she collapsed and hit the ground.

Damon scooped her up and threw her over his shoulder as the trio started making their way back towards Alaric's Car. "Remind me to thank the witch later for paying attention during that little party in the woods." said Damon.

"You think she'll be okay?" asked Elena as she nodded towards Caroline.

"Ripper Junior you mean? Oh, well, if she's anything like Stefan. She'll be fine after a long, painful detox." said Damon.

"It's going to hurt her?" asked Elena curiously.

"A little, but the painful part I meant mostly for us. Once she wakes up, she's going to be howling for three days trying to get out of that damn room and get some blood." sighed Damon. "Yep, it's going to be so much fun."

"That explains the stop at the liquor store before this now." said Alaric as Damon loaded Caroline into the backseat of Alaric's car.

"Better safe then sorry." said Damon as he got in next to Caroline and Elena sat in the passenger seat, casting worried glances back at Caroline as Damon pulled the empty syringe out of Caroline's back.

"What do you think made her go off like that?" asked Elena as Alaric started driving.

"Well, what has she been mentioning all month?" asked Damon. "That's when she started acting weird."

"Stefan." said Alaric. "She's mentioned him almost every single time I've seen her."

"She did-"

But Damon never got to finish his sentence as Alaric slammed on the breaks and there in the headlights of the car a few inches away from where the car stopped was a woman with golden hair dressed in black head to toe with bright green eyes: it was Aeryn.

"What the hell Ric?" snapped Damon as he looked out the front window to see the woman walk around to Alaric's window as she tapped on the glass with her long bright red fingernails as Alaric rolled the window down.

"I think you have a friend of mine." said Aeryn as she pointed back at Caroline. "I'd like her back without having to kill all of you. I just got my nails done and well, I've been running around all night, I'm just a little to exhausted to deal with you brats right now." said Aeryn with a smirk on her lips.

"And just who do you think you are?" asked Damon as he leaned forward to see Aeryn better.

"Aeryn Callaghan." she said. "Now, hand her over before I have to rip your hearts out. Trust me, if I break a nail while doing that so help me I will make your deaths three times as painful." hissed Aeryn, but her features immediately softened once she saw Elena in the car. "…Katerina?" she asked quietly with a confused look on her face. After a moment however, the smirk returned. "Oh no, you're the little doppelganger, aren't you? Stubborn little cockroach you are, here Klaus is all high and mighty thinking he drained you dry while your up walking and talking. I'm sure he'll be interested to hear about you too." smiled Aeryn.

"Ric, floor it. Now." hissed Damon between clenched teeth as Aeryn tightened her grip on the car now and when Alaric revved up the car, it didn't even budge.

"None of you are going _anywhere_." hissed Aeryn.

"Now, now, Aeryn, I thought I taught you how to play nice." came a voice from a shadowy figure that no one in the car could make out as they stood on the edge of the forest.

The figure came towards them and ripped Aeryn away from the car by her hair and suddenly, they were in a blur of fighting as they tumbled back towards the woods.

"Step on it, now!" hissed Damon as Alaric peeled away from the scene, driving as fast as his car could go to get away from the fighting vampires.

"So that woman back there, you think she really knows Klaus?" asked Elena worried.

"I think so." sighed Damon, there was another worry to be added to his long list, Klaus finding out that Elena was still alive and well. "Caroline, what have you gotten us all into?" asked Damon quietly as he looked at the still sleeping figure.

* * *

><p>Chelsea walked back downstairs to check up on Stefan, with Klaus pleased with her for getting Stefan to tear into the Caroline look-a-like, she felt on top of the world and expected to top off her wonderful night with torturing Stefan some more, he was always so much fun to mess with, she knew why Klaus kept him around now. But to her surprise, Stefan wasn't anywhere to be seen in the dimly lit attic, even though no one had saw Stefan try to escape and there was no way possible he could slip past them.<p>

"Here doggy, doggy." called Chelsea. "Come on Stefy, where are you?" asked Chelsea with a smirk on her face. "I've got a surprise for you if you come out."

Stefan poked his head out from behind the wooden beam towards the back of the attic as Chelsea smiled now. Stefan sighed and walked over to Chelsea as she patted him gently on the head. "Good boy."

"I've got a surprise for you too Chelsea." said Stefan as Chelsea looked confused. In the blink of an eye, Stefan pinned Chelsea up against the wall and chained Chelsea up in the chains he was once in but they were now coated in wolfsbane and vervain, the only thing that would cause her pain and hold her back, not to mention burn her as well. "Surprise." said Stefan with a smirk.

"You'll pay for this!" hissed Chelsea.

"We'll see." smiled Stefan as he walked up the stairs with Chelsea howling in pain behind him.

Under normal circumstances, Stefan would have been terrified facing all of these hybrids, but he made his way through the house with ease, distracting them easily with the smell of human blood and if they were really stubborn, just easily ripping their hearts out without a second through, he wanted to get to Caroline and nothing was going to stop him, not even a vicious hybrid with no sense of self control. Once Stefan made it out those front doors, with three hybrids right on his tail, fighting to get out of the wolfsbane and vervain covered doors, Stefan took that chance and sped off at top speed out of the tiny town and went off to go stop Klaus and save the girl.

* * *

><p>"You BITCH!" hissed Aeryn as she looked around the woods furiously looking for her attacker as they circled her. "You owe me a new shirt! <em>This<em> was Versace!" growled Aeryn.

"Looks like we're even then." purred the attackers voice as they stood there in the moonlight as plain as day in front of Aeryn with a smirk on her face.

"_Katerina?_" asked Aeryn amazed.

"Nice to see you too, _Alys_. Tell me, how exactly did you get Aeryn from that?" asked Katherine as she walked closer to Aeryn.

"Long story." said Aeryn simply. "What are you doing here? Klaus is coming."

"I know that now. I've been here for a few days, watching. Tonight was rather interesting though, you made a new ripper. I'm surprised you turned that tiny little blonde thing into a killing machine though." said Katherine.

"…Klaus said the same to you about me." said Aeryn with a small smile but it quickly faded. "I haven't seen you since 1864 with your adventure with the Salvatore brothers. Not even bothering to check on your oldest child then?"

"You made it quiet clear where your loyalties lie after that brief run in with Klaus where he corrupted you and turned you into what you are today." said Katherine.

"Either way I was screwed. Destined to be doomed I suppose, either be crazy and manipulative like you or power hungry like Klaus. Oh, but look, I'm both." said Aeryn with a smirk.

"499 years later and your still a sarcastic bitch." said Katherine. "Do you ever change?"

"I learned from the best." smiled Aeryn. "Either way, change is overrated. It was nice catching up with my long lost maker and everything, but I've got a ripper to steal back so, if you don't mind." said Aeryn as Katherine quickly pinned Aeryn up against a tree.

"As much as I'd _love_ to tick off Damon and expose that little doppelganger of mine, I can't let you do that Aeryn." said Katherine.

"Klaus is coming either way Katherine. You can't stop him. You won't stop him by killing me either." said Aeryn.

"I really don't know why I turned you. You were never loyal to me anyway." said Katherine.

"Hard to be loyal to someone who hates her very existence, at least you used to you little masochist. I was a _mistake_ anyway as you so often remind me." said Aeryn.

"You were. A mistake I've been itching to finally end for _years_ now ever since you became so chummy with Klaus again." growled Katherine.

"Fine, do it then. Kill me." said Aeryn. "If I'm such a mistake, kill me."

Katherine stared at Aeryn for a moment before letting out a long sigh and letting go of Aeryn as Aeryn brushed herself off. Aeryn looked up at Katherine with an apologetic look on her face, but Katherine refused to look at her.

"…I'll give you a head start if you want. For old times sake. Let you run till Klaus shows up." said Aeryn quietly.

"Sadly, I can't. I'm going to regret this once I have my heart torn out, but something tells me I have to help those idiots back there with their ripper problem. How about instead for old times sake you let Blondie slide?" asked Katherine.

But before Aeryn answered, Aeryn pulled a wooden stake out from behind her back that was so very well hidden by her jacket as she plunged it through Katherine's back as Katherine crumpled to the ground in pain.

"Vervain soaked stake." said Aeryn. "You can make yourself immune to it all you want Kat, but with that in your skin like that, it still burns, huh? I can't let you get the girl. That's just too high of a price for me to pay. Maybe if you had cared about me a little more in the past, this conversation could have gone in a completely different direction." said Aeryn with a smirk as she sauntered off before taking off at high speed through the woods, leaving Katherine alone on the forest floor, desperately trying to pull the wooden stake out of her back.

"Talk about a fucking backstabber." growled Katherine as she desperately tried to get a grip on the stake.

* * *

><p>Elena stood outside the sealed door Caroline was now behind in the cell in the basement. Damon had left long ago to continue talking about plans with Alaric on how to deal with Caroline once she was let out of there and how to deal with the new powerful vampire in town. Elena knew what this all meant, everyone was going crazy again and all the crazies were coming back to town, it meant that they were going to be fighting for their lives again soon, not to mention that the new vampire, Aeryn, knew Klaus and she knew now that Elena was still alive and well, which meant she wouldn't be alive much longer if she told Klaus about her, which she would. Just when things were starting to calm down, everyone seemed to have snapped and gone of the deep end. Again. And because of all of this, she wasn't going to let Caroline go ahead and snap, not without a fight. She was going to stand next to Caroline as she did when Stefan first snapped what seemed like ages ago now, she was going to suffer through Caroline's withdrawals with her. Besides, what was the worse that would happen? Caroline would go nuts and kill her? It wouldn't be much different from what was going to happen anyway once Klaus would hear she was still alive. She'd rather have her best friend rip her to shreds than a crazy homicidal vampire anyway.<p>

Elena started to hear movement in the tiny cell as she carefully and slowly walked up towards the little window and looked in to see Caroline moving around on the bed Damon laid her down on now. As Caroline slowly sat up, she took in her surroundings and let out a loud sigh before looking at Elena who was still watching her from the tiny barred window. She didn't have to ask where she was, because she knew this place all to well, and she didn't have to ask why, since for her to be here, Matt or Tyler must have somehow told them what Caroline had done which got her hunted down and locked up here. She knew what she did was wrong now, probably because the blood was wearing off faster after that big does of vervain into her system.

"How long have I been out?" asked Caroline groggily as she stretched.

"An hour maybe." said Elena while Caroline nodded and pulled her knees up to her chest while she leaned against the stone wall.

"I know I'm going to be down here for a while." said Caroline. "…You think you could at least tell my mom I'm staying with you or Bonnie or something for the next few days? I don't want her to know that all the bodies and stuff are from…me." said Caroline. "Not yet at least."

"Sure." nodded Elena. "…Why did you do it Caroline?"

"…There was this vampire that knows Klaus-"

"Aeryn." said Elena.

"…How did you know?" asked Caroline.

"We, uh, had a run in with her on our way here. Someone got her off our tail though. But I think she's going to tell Klaus that I'm alive now." sighed Elena.

"Sorry." said Caroline quietly. "But she was just so _convincing_. She told me if I killed all those people, if I became a ripper like Stefan…then Klaus would let me see Stefan again after he gets here tomorrow."

"Klaus is coming _here_? Tomorrow?" asked Elena shocked.

"Yeah." nodded Caroline.

"I-I have to go tell Damon and Alaric." said Elena quickly as she took off down the hallway and Caroline heard the door shut once she was up the stairs and back out in the house.

Caroline sat there in the tiny, cold, stone room, looking around, trying desperately to think of something to keep her brain occupied other than blood and Stefan. But eventually as she heard Damon's voice growing louder and things smashing upstairs, she knew thinking of Stefan would be the only thing to think of to keep her mind busy. It eventually led to her laying down on the bed and curling up before realizing that Stefan's scent faintly clinged on to the pillow and as Caroline took a deep breath and closed her eyes, thoughts of Stefan danced around in her head.

* * *

><p>"Damon! STOP!" said Elena as she grabbed Damon's arm in attempt to stop him from throwing the vase he grabbed up against the wall, and even though Elena was no match for Damon's strength, he let out a deep breath and gently handed the vase over to Elena as she put it back to where she found it while Alaric continued to stand frozen in place in the archway of the living room, away from Damon's wrath.<p>

"_What_ was she thinking?" hissed Damon as he spun around to face Alaric as if looking for an answer, but Alaric simply shrugged, afraid to answer Damon's question verbally.

"She _wasn't_ thinking Damon. It was the blood, it's like with Stefan when he-"

"Stefan. He's gotten me into trouble more times than I can count now." mumbled Damon as he grabbed his bottle of scotch, not even bothering with a glass as he took a drink from it, and sat down on the sofa staring at the blazing fire in the fireplace. "If it weren't for him, Blondie down there wouldn't have snapped like him and we'd continue on with our happy lives."

"You don't mean that Damon." said Elena as she took her seat on the sofa next to Damon and Alaric cautiously started to walk into the room, avoiding stepping on all the broken glass along the way. "He's your brother, you love him no matter what. And deep down I know you care about Caroline too."

"If she wasn't your friend Elena, I would have put her down a long time ago." grumbled Damon.

"And I appreciate you not killing her." said Elena as Alaric looked at her confused but Elena glared at him and he knew now that she was just trying to calm Damon down, Alaric knew that Elena would never speak to Damon again if he had killed Caroline. "But, I think you just need to calm down for a little, you know? It's not the end of the world, at least not yet."

"…We can never catch a break, can we?" asked Damon as Elena shook her head no.

"Uh, guys." said Alaric as Elena and Damon looked up at him now and they stood up instantly and backed up once they saw Aeryn there in the room now with a gun up to Alaric's head as she held him.

"Funny thing, I paid a visit to Caroline's house before coming here, thinking maybe that's where you all went, but imagine my surprise when I came across Mommy Forbes and her wooden bullet loaded gun." smiled Aeryn. "She was kind enough to lend it to me. Here's a fun fact about wooden bullets, they work on people," said Aeryn as she quickly pushed Alaric away and shot him right in the stomach. "And they work on vampires too." she said as she shot Damon now, a little too close to his heart for Elena's comfort. "Don't worry sweetie, there's still plenty left for you. I'd be an honor to kill someone who looks like my dear Katerina."

"What do you want?" asked Elena as she stood perfectly still in fear even though she wanted to help Damon and Alaric who were on the floor in pain now and slowly bleeding out.

"Caroline. Give me back my little ripper and I'll let you live to help your adoptive Daddy and boyfriend here." smiled Aeryn. "Of course, I can't promise you'll live much longer after that seeing that Klaus is coming for the party tomorrow night. Full moon, and some Hybrid testing, it should be a blast tomorrow."

"She's downstairs." said Elena reluctantly. "In the basement."

"Take me to her or I shoot the human." said Aeryn as she aimed the gun back at Alaric.

"NO!" said Elena. "I'll take you." she sighed and slowly started walking ahead of Aeryn as she kept the gun aimed at Elena the whole time, ready to pull the trigger if she tried anything.

Elena led Aeryn down the stairs and the long dark hallway until she grabbed the keys to Caroline's cell and opened up the door as Aeryn put the gun away and walked into the cell as Caroline got up out of bed. Caroline didn't have to ask anything since she saw the look of fear in Elena's face, she knew something must have happened.

"Come on little one, we've got so much to do to get ready for Klaus coming." smiled Aeryn as she held out her hand for Caroline to take.

"I'm sorry." Caroline whispered to Elena as Elena quickly nodded. Caroline took Aeryn's hand and as quickly as Aeryn was in the house, she was gone with Caroline.

Elena ran upstairs to Alaric and Damon who were still on the floor in pain. "Help. Alaric. First." said Damon through gritted teeth as he tried to slowly stand up now that Elena saw the wooden bulled that was once in his chest on the floor.

Elena kneeled over by Alaric's side and took the ring that she always kept with her out of her pocket and put it on Alaric's finger, she saw how much blood he lost and knew he was going to die. "It'll be okay." said Elena as Alaric saw the ring and nodded.

She walked down to the bathroom and grabbed some things to at least clean up Alaric a little before he died so he wouldn't die in his own blood. Once he finally closed his eyes and was all cleaned up, Elena sat down by Damon's side as he was now sipping a glass of blood.

"How's the bullet wound?" asked Elena as she watched Alaric carefully even though she knew he wouldn't wake up for a while now.

"Healing. She had too good of an aim for my taste though." said Damon.

"She took Caroline." said Elena.

"I figured that." said Damon as he watched Alaric now too.

"You sure the blood bags are gonna be enough?" asked Elena as she looked at Damon's almost empty glass now. "I could help."

"…No." Damon finally said, trying to not act shocked at the fact that it was the first time Elena offered him her blood. "I'll be fine."

"So…Klaus is coming tomorrow…for hybrid testing." said Elena finally. "And there's a crazy vampire on the loose that's turning my best friend into a ripper."

"Just another day in Mystic Falls." sighed Damon as he grabbed his scotch off of the table and handed it to Elena who without question, took a drink from it. "She mention anything about Stefan coming?"

"Nope." said Elena.

"I guess it'll be a surprise then." said Damon.

"You know, I kinda wonder who that vampire was that distracted Aeryn earlier." said Elena.

"Let's not make a list of all our problems, we got enough already. We'll worry about that later." said Damon.

* * *

><p>Just as the sun was rising, Caroline's eyes slowly opened up as she rolled over in her bed. She wasn't expecting anything or anyone to be in her room at this hour, but was quickly shocked out of bed and sat straight up once she saw Klaus leaning up against the doorframe in her room with a smile on her face as he held up her bloodstained shirt from last night.<p>

"Well it looks like someone was busy last night." smiled Klaus as he tossed the shirt onto Caroline's bed. "It appears I have a new little ripper then."

"Where's Stefan?" asked Caroline hopefully.

"Grounded." said Klaus. "But we don't need him right now lovely, just think of it this way," said Klaus as he walked up to Caroline and brushed a stray piece of her golden hair out of her face. "If you do a good job today, I'll take you with me back to where he is."

"…Are you sure?" asked Caroline.

"I'm a man of my word." smiled Klaus. "Now, how about you get dressed and come downstairs to meet a friend of mine. I think it'd help if poor little Tess had a friend, such as a nice little vampire like yourself." said Klaus with a smirk as he walked out of the room and shut Caroline's door behind him.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** Well, I waited until after Thursday to finish writing this thing, because I was kinda curious as to how Klaus would make the hybrids…then they all died. So obviously, I changed that part because well, I like hybrids, they'd be so awesome on the show if Klaus could just make them you know, not die. Anyway, other than that little minor detail, I put in a little more about Aeryn for you guys so you could all know where she came from and such, I made her Katherine's first person that she turned and she was kind of a mistake, so that's why they don't exactly see eye to eye, and that's why Aeryn works for Klaus, it was who she turned to many years ago, oh, and yeah, she's 499 years old too :P Next chapter Stefan will come to the rescue, or try too, and there shall be more about how I see the Hybrids in my mind since Klaus wants Caroline to meet Tess, so hopefully, it should be good. Oh, and Stefan should be pretty pissed off at Klaus too once he gets to Mystic Falls for making him have to kill someone that looked so much like Caroline earlier ;) xoxo, Avril


End file.
